1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for accumulating paper sheets in good order to deliver the thus formed bundle of accumulated paper sheets while holding them firmly so as to prevent the paper sheets from being disturbed.
2. Prior Art
Paper accumulator devices have been widely used, for example, in bank note counting machines and bank note dispensers as the bank note accumulator or in various other types of machines including printing presses and copying machines. The device of this invention has particularly high utility when used in a machine in which different kinds of paper are handled, such as a machine handling bank notes. In order to simplify the description and to facilitate easy understanding of the invention, the following description will be given with particular reference to a bank note accumulator embodying the invention. However, it should be noted here that the device for accumulating and delivering paper sheets according to this invention is not limited to such an application.
A typical example of the conventional bank note accumulator assembled in a bank note counting machine or bank note dispenser installed in a bank is shown in FIG. 1. In this known device shown in FIG. 1, bank notes A fed in-between conveyer belts 1 and kick-up drums 2 are moved in the direction shown by the arrow Z by the action of the rotating drums 2 operatively associated with the conveyer belts 1. After the leading end of each bank note abuts against a stop plate 3, the other or trailing end of the bank note is kicked upwards by the kick-up drums 2. Thus, the bank notes are successively positioned under the already accumulated bank notes.
However, in the accumulator device of the aforementioned type, since the upper face of the bank note moving to the accumulation station contacts the underside of the lowermost bank note already accumulated and held at the accumulation station, the next bank note tends to be caught by the lowermost bank note, causing the paper sheet accumulator assembly to jam or the bank note to be underlaid in an improper state when the lowermost bank note is downwardly folded or has a tear. Moreover, such a trouble is also encountered when handling bank notes made of a soft or flexible material.